Living Wage

Every day, foreign aid workers, federal agents, and public policy scholars go to work in the palatial Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Ave., the most expensive federal building ever constructed. So did Joel Mejia, a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant (right) -- for $9 an hour and no benefits, in the building's ...

While President Obama's win Tuesday has garnered lots of attention, ballot initiatives approved by voters in six states that boost wages and may result in more jobs in some niche industries -- and threaten jobs in another -- are also noteworthy. Some are praised as breakthrough measures. Others (such as a ...

Jonathan Bryan, a senior at the University of Virginia, stopped eating on Feb. 17. Three days later, he got strep throat. The doctors drew blood, and gave him antibiotics, but he wouldn't take a bite. By the 10th day, he "could barely stand," he says, and the doctor said he had to eat "to function." But at ...

New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver plans to propose a minimum wage hike on Monday, which would lift the state's wage floor to $8.50 from $7.25 an hour. California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey are also considering minimum wage increases, and ...